


Another Chance

by Liliths_Love



Category: Babylon 5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-19
Updated: 2015-08-19
Packaged: 2018-04-15 12:04:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4606059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liliths_Love/pseuds/Liliths_Love
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Delenn finds a way to extend Sheridan's life. AU, but sticks to the plot points.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another Chance

Note: Obliviously I don't own Babylon 5 or anything within that franchise.  
\---------------------------

"Delenn, are you sure you want to do this? There's no going back once it's turned on."  
"Yes, Linnear, I am certain."

It had been almost nineteen years after Linear had betrayed Delenn and John, and sixteen years after Linnear had been declared dead. It wasn't for the first reason, but for the second that she was so startled when he contacted her all of those years later.  
"Hello Delenn." he said through his holographic image. Delenn started at him in shock for several moments before trying to speak, when no words came out she reached out to touch the image, like somehow it would give her some answers.  
"Linnear..." She whispered, her voice quiet. "Linnear we thought you were dead."  
"I know, and I'm sorry. It was the only way I could protect Lyta." Delenn felt her legs give out beneath her as she sank into a chair beside the com system.  
"Linnear, Linnear how?" She zoomed in on the image to look at his face. He had aged, but not considerably. There were a few more lined on his face and he was battle worn. A couple of faint scars ran across his head, a slight line in his crown indicated a crack healed. It wasn't that that caused him to look so different. It took Delenn a moment to put a finger on it. It was that he looked happy, truly happy.  
"When I joined Lyta in her fight against the PSI core I did it out of honor. I had lived on earth for the previous year and saw what the human telepaths were going through. I couldn't just ignore it. I found her, and offered to help. She accepted and we fought together for two years before the explosion. I fell in love with her." He paused and smiled as if it take in what he had just said, to remember the moment eighteen years ago. "And she loves me back. I got her into PSI core headquarters and she caused the explosion that destroyed it. We were assumed dead, and we let that be believed. There would be repercussions against her, and possibly me. So even though she had been able to shield us we left earth. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you." Delenn shook her head and looked away from the projection. She had always retained composure, she was Minbari. She didn't want Linnear to see her cry, even if it was because she was happy.  
"It's alright, Linnear. I'm just so happy you're alright. How is it safe for you to contact me now?"  
"With the Narns giving the telepaths a home world on the edge of their borders we're finally safe. All of the humans telepaths have moved there, and we're offering refuge to telepaths of any other species that require it. We only have a half dozen non-humans, but it's good for relations. Delenn, the reason I called you..." Delenn's heart sank as she looked down. She had hoped she could go back to being friends with Linnear. That there wasn't a business reason for him calling. With her becoming president of the ISA she would be the one he would contact for membership. She wondered if they could ever just be friends, friends without guilt or unreciprocated feeling. She looked back up at the screen, realizing she had been silent for several minutes. Like always, Linnear had waited for her to compose herself.  
"Yes Linnear?" He hesitated and looked away. A gesture that was more human than she had ever seen on him. He was nervous, and, she realized, ashamed. "Linnear what is it?"  
"When I last saw you, when I tried to kill Sheridan."  
"Linnear, that was nineteen years ago."  
"It doesn't matter. I'm happy now, Delenn. I've finally found a family, a place I truly belong. But it still haunts me, that I never made my mistake up to you, up to Sheridan. Please, I want to regain my honor. Please let me know if there's anything I can do."  
"Linnear." She smiled softly. "You need to let go of this."  
"Give me something, and I will." Delenn looked down at her wedding ring. John had replaced the original ring with a diamond after they had arrived from Minbar, but she still wore both.  
"If I do ask something of you, you won't question it? You won't advise me against it, or tell anyone?"  
"I swear on my life."  
"Then there is one thing, something you can get for me."

Linnear arrived at her door two weeks later with the box in his arms. He placed it down and accepted Delenn's hug after she let him through the door.  
"You plan to use it now?" Linnear asked.  
"There isn't much time left," responded Delenn.  
"Sheridan will never agree to this."  
"That's why I still need you. You will do this for me, Linnear?" Linnear looked over at the box he had brought in, then slowly nodded.  
"Yes... I know the irony, how hard I was on you for marrying a human, then marrying one myself. I can't say I want you to do this, but I understand why you are. I will help you. Just tell me what to do next."  
"John will be home any minute, you know what I need you to do. Don't let him see you, or he may react badly." Linnear cupped his hands and bowed.  
"Of course."

John Sheridan walked into the entry way of his house, receiving a kiss from his wife.  
"The new training facilities are coming along nicely. We'll be able to use them within the month." Delenn smiled. She tried her best to keep her eyes and voice neutral. She hated what she had asked Linnear to do to him, but she knew John would never agree willingly. He was too selfless, too stubborn.  
Delenn caught John as he collapsed to the floor, keeping his head from hitting anything. She stroked his cheek and smiled.  
"Sorry, my love." Linnear held his arms together, still in his stance. After John didn't get back up he relaxed.  
"I haven't done that since I was on Babylon 5. I've tried to fight little since the telepath war, in apology to anyone I had to injure then."  
"You did what you have to." She smiled softly looking down at her husband. "We all do what we feel we have to do in order to protect those we love.  
"Delenn, are you sure you want to do this? There's no going back once it's turned on."  
"Yes, Linnear, I'm certain." The voices danced through his mind, teasing him. They were close, so close, but too far for John to grasp. The words moved around his mind like smoke, visable but never clear. Delenn, are you sure? A voice he knew, one he hadn't heard in many years. John opened his eyes, they were heavy and felt glued to his face. He blinked and looked around the room.  
"Delenn, he's waking up." John looked to the source of the voice, blurred images slowly coming into view.  
"Linnear?" John said, his voice harsh from fainting. Linnear turned to face him, cupped him hands together and bowed.  
"I'll be leaving." Linnear's words were far away even though the speaker was close. John's ears ringed, tuning themselves back into the frequency of the room. He blinked to clear his eyes and looked past Linnear to see Delenn sitting at the foot of his bed. She looked tired, but more relaxed than he had seen her in weeks.  
"You know how to contact me if you need too, Delenn. Lyta will be calling you soon about our planet joining the alliance." Linnear turned, bowed again, and left the room.  
"Delenn?" John pulled himself up so he was sitting and found it came with ease, much more ease than it had the day before. His joints didn't hurt, his blood seemed to flow with ease. Catching himself in the opposing mirror he stopped and stared.  
"John, how do you feel?" Delenn asked, moving closer to him. He looked at her, studying her face. Nothing had change about her, she was the same person she had been that morning. He, however...  
"Am I dead?" But then, he thought, what was she doing there? Had they both died? He looked back at the mirror as she cupped his face in her hands.  
"No, John. You're alive."  
"How... Why do I look so much younger?" Twenty years had left his face, left his body entirely. He felt as he had when he had left Babylon 5.  
"John, do you remember the artifact that was on Babylon 5? The one Dr. Franklyn used to heal Mr. Garabaldie?" John nodded, then, slowly, realized. He look around the room, panic spreading through him. When he couldn't find what he was looking for so he looked down at his arms. Red marks were fading from his arms, marks from where he had been connected. He looked back up at her and took her arm, then the other as if not finding evidence on one could change the truth of the other. He looked up at her, her soft smiling face, and pulled her into his arms, holding her head against his chest.  
"Delenn... How much did you sacrifice?"  
"I didn't sacrifice anything, John. I traded willing, and I am pleased with my deal."  
"Delenn." With shaking arms he pulled her away from him to make her look him in the eyes. "How much?"  
"We'll both live for another twenty years, and then we'll die together."  
"Twenty years... You would.. should have had fifty or sixty years..." She placed her hand on top of John's hand pulled it off of her shoulder, taking it between both of her hands.  
"It was mine to trade."  
"Delenn... I never would have asked you..."  
"I know. But David still needs you. I still need you. I have lived my life as religious caste, always giving and serving my people. I needed this, I needed this for myself. It may have been selfish to make this decision for you, but you never would have agreed, feeling it was too much for me to give. But John, what you don't understand is that not giving it was a much higher price. Don't be mad." He took his free hand from her shoulder and caressed the side of her face, wiping a stray tear off her cheek.  
"I'm not mad Delenn, you gave me back my life." He smiled softly when she began to relax. He could see David reach 21, watch him get married, perhaps even have children of his own. He had twenty more years, twenty more years and he didn't plan to make Delenn cry for a single moment of them. Not after the gift she had given him. "I just don't know what to say."  
"Then say nothing at all." She said. He smiled, and kissed her.

"You cheated death, yet again I see." John looked around, startled. Delenn was with him, but where were they? He pulled her closer to him, trying to remember how they had gotten there. When he couldn't he grew defensive, then frightened.  
"Who are you?" A laugh, old and deep. From nowhere Lorien walked into view, becoming as clear as he had been the day he left them.  
"Lorien..." Delenn said. She looked around, as if coming to the same conclusion John had. They weren't in their home, or perhaps, even in their bodies.  
"I gave you twenty years, John Sheridan, and now you've found twenty more."  
"Yes,"  
"Lorien," Delenn said, taking a step forward, "I am the one to blame. I altered John's life."  
"And your own." She nodded.  
"Yes."  
"You make this sacrifice willingly, Delenn? Give up eighy years so that one man may have twenty more? No fame, no glory, just a sacrifice alone in the dark?" The words echoed through Delenn's mind, so familiar from so long ago. The first moment she knew, truly knew that John loved her.  
"Yes." she whispered. She looked Lorien in the eye, refusing to back down. "This body is but a shell, a transition. What I gave I gave willingly." Lorien smiled.  
"Would you believe me if I told you I knew, no, needed for this to happen? Eighty years is a long time to wait for your soul to arrive, Delenn. What's the point of only taking half of the puzzle pieces with me?" He laughed lightly and smiled. "In twenty years, I'll be back for you both."  
"Back for us? Where are we going?" John asked.  
"Beyond the rim," Delenn answered for him. "But you knew this would happen?" Lorien laughed lightly and pressed a finger to the tip of her nose. An action you would do to a child, to Lorien, all humans were still children.  
"Yes, why else do you think the artifact ended up at Babylon 5? Why do you think you directed it there for yourselves?"  
"I don't... I don't understand."  
"In twenty years, you will."

John shot up in bed, then looked over to where Delenn slept. She was waking up as well, holding her hand to her head.  
"Lorien..." She whispered. John took a shaky breath to calm himself and nodded.  
"I saw him too." He eased himself back down into bed and pulled her closer to him until she was resting her head on his chest.  
"What did he mean? Directed it there for ourselves?" He asked. She shook her head.  
"It's not for us to understand, not yet." He laughed lightly.  
"Then why even tell us?"  
"Because," Delenn smiled "life is better with mystery, without knowing what's beyond the rim. We don't know where we will go, but we know we will go together, and that we are supposed to."


End file.
